The scale of this advertising buy is mysterious. In an election where billions of dollars were spent, why even bother to spend $100,000?

That could be because: 1) Not all the ads have been discovered, so the $100,000 is a significant undercount. 2) That was the right number, and the ads worked to aid distribution of disinformation. 3) The ads were part of a message-testing protocol to improve the reach of posts posted natively by other accounts. Think of it as a real-time focus group to test for the most viral content and framing. 4) That $100,000 was a test that didn’t work well, so it didn’t get more resources. 5) That $100,000 was merely a calling card, spent primarily to cause trouble for Facebook and the election system.

"Gerasimov took tactics developed by the Soviets, blended them with strategic military thinking about total war, and laid out a new theory of modern warfare—one that looks more like hacking an enemy’s society than attacking it head-on."

"The internet in Russia is becoming a tougher place to express an anonymous opinion. In the past five years the government has passed a series of laws, placing the same demands on popular bloggers as it does on the state-dominated media sector.

One of the strictest bits of regulation, introduced in 2014, demands that all popular social media influencers or web writers have to register their account with the government, along with documents revealing their identity.

'If you have more than 3,000 views on your social media account per day you have to send a copy of your passport to the Russian communication watchdog,' Anastasia Denisova, a professor at London’s University of Westminster, researching Russian internet policy says. 'Which basically means no anonymity, very limited freedom of speech lets say.'" - Damien Sharkov, Newsweek

"The Kremlin and a slew of Russian government agencies are including political channels hosted on the Telegram messaging app in their regular media monitoring diet, the Vedomosti newspaper reported on Sunday. Telegram, with 6 million active Russian users as of January 2017, is an encrypted messaging service. Since its introduction in 2015, Telegram’s 'Channels' feature has become an essential tool for political gossip...The Federal Security Service (FSB), Defense Ministry and Interior Ministry also monitor politically-oriented Telegram channels, Vedomosti cited the agencies press services as saying. Around 200 Telegram channels are reportedly included in a Kremlin media monitoring service “Katyusha” purchased by the Kremlin last year. Developed by a Moscow-based tech firm, 'Katyusha' monitors more than 20,000 media sources, according to its CEO." - The Moscow Times

Both Russian officials and analysts emphasized that the 2000 doctrine, with its increased reliance on nuclear weapons, was intended for a transitional phase, until conventional forces and other capabilities could contribute to more effective and more credible deterrence consisting of a broader range of military and non-military options. Many observers wanted a less risky and less nuclear-focused deterrence strategy as soon as this would be viable.